A relevant science education in the 21st century

Abstract

This research was carried out to investigate what makes a relevant science education for Maltese students living in a contemporary 21st century society. The study focused on the attitudes students have towards the school science they received and the science content they wish to learn about. A mixed methodology approach was used to collect data. First, a questionnaire, adapted from the ROSE (Relevance of Science Education) (Schreiner & Sj0berg, 2004) project master questionnaire was filled in by a representative sample of 15-year old students. This was then followed by focus group discussions. Through analysis of the responses, it was clearly evident that although students appreciate the importance of school science for their everyday life and their future, they find school science difficult and disenchanting. This is especially true for students who attend Area Secondary schools, who are not only less science-oriented but are also of lower academic ability and usually have problems to communicate in the English language. School science is still too abstract and built on canonical content and this lack of contextualisation makes it irrelevant for the students. The focus on canonical concepts renders it too exam-led and less discussion-focused. Additionally, school science, is regarded as a subject fit only for those who aspire to become scientists and not as a means of self-realisation which is the ultimate goal of late modem youth culture. Consequently, other subjects such as the languages are preferred to science. Regarding gender differences, girls have been found to be more interested in the humane aspect of science than boys who tend to have a more blind-fold belief in the scientific method. Content and context categories that students are interested to learn about were also identified in this study with areas related to the self at the top of the list. This is also characteristic of the me-centred youth culture. This study also provides a number of recommendations to curriculum developers to make science education more relevant in Malta. Nonetheless, it was concluded that such changes in the curriculum are futile if they are not accompanied by parallel changes in pedagogy and assessment.